Woman with cancer walking to medicine man in Colorado

Marco Santana

Wednesday

Jul 29, 2009 at 12:01 AMJul 29, 2009 at 8:57 AM

Tawny Shepherd had a simple answer when asked if the first part of her 1,200-mile walk from Michigan to Colorado has left her tired and worn out. She said it could be worse. And she should know. Shepherd was bedridden for about two years with Stage 4 breast cancer until April, when she took the first two steps that led to her trek. She is traveling from Burlington, Mich., to Burlington, Colo., hoping to cure her condition.

Tawny Shepherd had a simple answer when asked if the first part of her 1,200-mile walk from Michigan to Colorado has left her tired and worn out. She said it could be worse. And she should know.

Shepherd was bedridden for about two years with Stage 4 breast cancer until April, when she took the first two steps that led to her trek. She is traveling from Burlington, Mich., to Burlington, Colo., hoping to cure her condition.

“I was going to die for two years,” she said. “I was taking what treatment they could offer. It was such a miserable experience.”

She said she prayed for the first time and received an answer in a medicine man from Colorado. He told her that in order to receive a cure for her ills, she should embark on the journey.

“It’s not a test, it’s a testimonial to my determination to live,” Shepherd explained.

The walk took her and her sister, Tam Smith, through Galesburg on Tuesday afternoon. They traveled on Illinois 164 headed toward Monmouth in the late afternoon. The two are also dragging rickshaws behind them, which they say weigh about 150 pounds each. They had initially used a pack goat, but complications left the goat behind in Michigan.

Shepherd said having Smith with her on the journey has made it much easier.

“She’s always been my big sissy,” said Shepherd, 43. “She has always looked out for me.”

Smith has seen her own faith reassured on the trip. Before the trip, she had fallen into a state of depression.

“It was destroying my faith in myself and the creator and humanity,” she said.

But she said the 48 pounds she has lost — bringing her down to 190 pounds — since they left Michigan on July 7 has changed her emotionally as well as physically.

“If anything makes you unhappy, stop whining about it and change it,” she said. “I could have whined and said ‘I can’t walk that far’ and gone back to bed and eaten more food. But everybody has the power to change. If they make a significant change in themselves, then they can make a little change in the world.”

And Shepherd hopes change awaits her at the end of her journey. She already has experienced it to some degree. She said her lungs feel better. And she said the pain she usually feels on her breast has been lessened significantly. But she believes that pain can lessen further.

“I’m going to put it all in the hands of the medicine man,” she said.

Regardless of the outcome, however, she wanted to pass along a message.